catch a cold
by LuluCastle
Summary: One-shot prompt: Kate confesses to her crush and crush turning her down. Rick then comforts Kate, which leads to kissing. A younger version of Rick and Kate.


**Prompt: Kate confesses to her crush and crush turns her down. Rick then comforts Kate, which leads to kissing. Rainy weather.**

* * *

"I am telling you, Kate... if you don't confess yourself to him any sooner, he'll be off the table." Lanie spoke next to her on the bench. "Stop waiting and over thinking it, just do something."

They had a little break in between lectures and they decided to get something to eat. Surprisingly, the guy she liked - _really, really liked_ \- was here today. She hadn't seen him in weeks and it surprised her that he was back on lectures. It made her feel anxious again and Lanie was not doing a great job of helping her with the nerves.

Biting hard on her thumbnail, she sneaked a secret glance at her crush and sighed in frustration.

Tom was sitting with his friends on one of the benches behind the trees, his back facing her. He couldn't see her, but she was still being pretty secretive about it.

And _fuck-_ Lanie was right about everything.

This has been going for weeks and she was getting exhausted from wondering if there could be something more than _strangers and friends_ between them.

Having a crush on someone can be both exciting and terrifying. She wanted to just figure it out and get over it, instead of sitting and thinking about 'whether, what ifs' all day. Hell, even sometimes, it was hard for her to determine if she even had a crush on him or not.

But of course Lanie insisted on the fact that she does _like_ him, bringing all the facts and signs…

"Alright, I admit that - you might be right..." She said quietly and Lanie looked at her with small wicked grin written over her lips, humming.

"But I can't just go and confess my ridiculous feelings to him. It's not easy as it looks like." Kate spoke in frustration, running an uneasy hand through the locks of her hair. "Besides, he is with his friends, how am I-"

"Look, look, shit-" Lanie nudged her rib with her elbow, making Kate wince in pain.

" _Ouch_!? Why did you do that-" The hand on her rib stilled, when she followed Lanie's gaze. To _him_. He and his group of friends.

The guys stood up from their lunch place and Lanie quickly pulled up Kate by the elbow, dragging her after them. "Lanie, what the hell are you doing?"

"You need to stop fooling yourself and make your move, now." Her friend spoke with a voice full of irritation.

Kate's brows furrowed in discrepancy, abruptly stopping in her tracks before it was too late. "I can't do that!"

"Yes, you can and you will." Lanie said with raised eyebrows, making Kate cross her arms in something like a challenge. She expected dozens of remarks and disagreeing statements, but instead her friend surprised her by saying "Alright, fine. Do whatever you want, girl. But then don't you dare come to me again and tell me how much it bugs you to know if he's interested in you. You've made up your mind, I can't change it."

Kate watched in apprehension as her friend adjusted the straps on her backpack and turned to head to lectures. Nervous and worry that she might have missed her chance flew through her system, making her bite on her lip in frustration. Taking a glance at the group of boys in the distance, she noticed that they were disappearing more and more from her sight.

 _It couldn't hurt that much, right?_

Finally, coming up with a decision she quickly jogged after her friend and yelled. "Lanie, wait!"

 _She was going to do it._

* * *

Kate was on her way home after lectures when a car went right through the puddle next to the sidewalk, making all the dirty and cold water splash over her clothes.

She was too drowned in her thoughts to react on time and when she felt the freezing water collide with her skin, she gasped and yelled at the driver. "Seriously?"

 _What was with this day?_

Not to mention she forgot to get her umbrella, money and she was already soaking wet, but now… – well, she couldn't get any wetter than this.

She couldn't get a damn cab, either.

Having no other choice, Kate continued walking with chattering teeth and splashy shoes towards the next bus stop. Normally, she loved the rain, but after this awful day and horrible experiences she would need some time to start loving it again. She hated everything about this day, especially Lanie.

Walking what it seemed like dozens of kilometers, she realized that she is not even close to the bus stop.

Stopping herself from walking, Kate took a shaky breath, closing her eyes to calm herself down and gather her emotions, but she terribly failed at it.

Suddenly a dark shadow appeared in front of her eyelids, making her open her eyes and realize that the rain stopped pouring over her. Looking up, she met with a very familiar face, looking thoughtfully at her. It was dark and he was with hood, making it hard for her to recognize him. His hand was holding onto an umbrella over her body to protect her from the rain. "Are you okay?"

 _Richard Rodgers._

Her throat was too tightened to speak, so she just shook her head slightly at him. "I was there when this, uh, thing with Tom happened."

Her brows furrowed in something like anger and irritation. Of course, he was one of his stupid friends. What was she thinking when she listened to Lanie? She totally made the biggest fool of herself. Everyone spread the news. "If you are here to humiliate me, fine then do it. Can you finish with it faster? This day has been more than horrible; I don't need any more tribulations."

"Wait, no – I am not, I didn't mean it like that." She was already turning to walk again, so he followed her, still keeping the umbrella over her head. "I just, I wanted to help."

"Good luck with that." She huffed, crossing arms over her chest to block the wind from sneaking through her wet clothes. The last thing she needed is to catch a cold. Actually, it might be a little late for that, her nose was already stuffy. "And why would you do that?"

"Well, for a start no one deserves to feel like that. Not you." He shrugged cautiously. "I mean, - I know what it feels like to be rejected. It's not cool, especially in front of so many people."

She frowned at the memory of the whole scene earlier today. "I should've known he had a girlfriend. Hell, I shouldn't have even, -"her voice lowered, not finishing her sentence. Everything that she was about to say wouldn't fix what happened. There was no use of words.

"It's not your fault. Things like this happen. You can't always prevent them from happening." He spoke reassuringly and she felt some kind of warm sensation in her chest. The way he said it, - it was kind of cute. She hasn't spoken to him much before and she was left with the impression that he was like the others. But surprisingly, he was quite the opposite.

"Still." She murmured brokenly, her whole body frame shaking from the cold. "It was really embarrassing."

"Here, put on this." He stepped in front of her, noticing the confusion that appeared on her face when he shrugged off his hood to extend it to her.

"Oh, uh – no, don't. Thanks, but you're going to freeze." She sniffled, looking at his torso. "You have only a T-shirt on."

"I don't feel cold, besides you need it more than me." He placed the open umbrella on the ground, keeping it from moving with his foot. Before she could say something, Rick was already wrapping the cloth over her arms. She tugged it closer for warmth, smelling the scent of his cologne. Risking a shy glance at him, she noticed the way the rain was pouring on both of them and his hair was adorably slumped over his forehead.

"Thank you." Kate said and he took the umbrella to shelter both of them from the massive rainstorm.

"No problem." The corner of his mouth curved into a sweet smile and then it transformed into something like coyness and uncertainty. "You know – I think that maybe after all this isn't so bad."

Her face stretched into an adorable frown. How exactly any of this wasn't _so bad?_ It was an awful day.

"Don't get me wrong, but maybe this rejection is not so bad. I mean, - you are totally not for him. You wouldn't work anyways and, I-"He started stumbling over his words when he noticed how confused she had become. "He's a jackass; he wouldn't do any good for you. Believe me, I know Tom."

"Why wouldn't it work?" Her frown deepened.

"He's not for you." And how exactly did he know who was for her and who was not? He barely even knew her. "You are smart and I can assure you that he is far away from smart. I am not talking about only education related things."

"I am smart?" She asked, trying to hide the big curtain of insecurity that built up inside of her after this mortifying day.

His head bobbed twice in shy nod, swallowing and bouncing on his feet.

"On top of that, uh, you're really beau- _shit!_ "

All of sudden he abruptly pulled her against him by wrapping his free hand around her waist, shielding their bodies with the umbrella when another car passed with full speed through the big puddle. She expected another wave of dirty, cold water to splash over her, but instead it landed on the shielding umbrella.

When she opened her eyes to look up at Rick, he was still wrapped around her. Closer than they ever got. Very close and he realized it too, but he didn't pull back.

"That was close." She whispered her eyes brighter than ever, gazing into his blue ones.

"Yeah." He lowered the umbrella on the ground, leaving the rain to pour over them. "Really close."

Screw the umbrella. They were already dripping wet anyways. It's not like they could get any wetter than this.

Staring down at her made him realize how much time he wasted on acting like a stupid jackass in front of her. Rick _liked_ her. Maybe much more than this and he did a terrible job of showing it, till now. All this time - he wasted it around his friends.

He lifted one hand to her face to place one of her damp curls behind her ear, making Kate's eyes widen in surprise by his unexpected move. "You are beautiful."

Her breath hitched in her throat and he felt her shudder under his touch. Maybe it came more from the cold or the wet clothes sticking to her body than from his touch. He didn't know.

When he realized what he'd done and that she might not want it, he started pulling his hand away, but she surprised him by placing her own over his, keeping it on her cheek.

Kate got up on her toes and leaned in, ever so tentatively, and touched her lips to his. His mouth was warm despite the cold and rain. He kissed her back softly, then threading his hands through her hair, he drew her close. Her hands moved down, over his chest to grip at the wet fabric of his T-shirt in her fist. She wanted to feel how fast his heart was beating.

Her knuckles turned white from the sensation delivered by the great feeling of his lips over hers.

 _Damn it, where was this guy this whole time?_

Kate couldn't think, couldn't move. His kiss was slow, deliberate, relentless as he devoured her.

A heavy wave of weakness settled in her legs, and she found herself whimpering softly as Rick sucked on her bottom lip. His warm hands cradled her wet face, his thumb sliding over the curve of her jaw.

They were so lost in each other that they didn't even notice the passing bus and when they pulled apart, Kate finally found the strength to speak. "I missed my bus."

He chuckled throaty, receiving a shy smile from Kate. "Come one, we'll catch a cab."

And that's how the day started terribly wrong and ended wonderfully.

He pulled the umbrella over them, clasping her soft hand in his while walking on the sidewalk together.

The first thing that Kate did that night after getting home was calling Lanie to thank her.

 _The End._

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 **I don't know if you liked, hahaha. If you have any thoughts or remarks about the prompt please let me know in the reviews. Thank you for reading!**


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